Wisetech is a company full of extremely intelligent people globally. One thing you'll find here is a distinct lack of "Average People". When you join (after some interesting cognitive testing) be sure that you will find the very flat structure unique. Where WTG is different is its ability to find within people their key skills and strengths (which that person may or may not n aware of). The result of this is a group of intelligent people doing what they are best at.

Cons

The free snacks, coffee, tea and Friday beer'O'clock food (with beer and wine) will perhaps require you to exercise more!

Free food, beer, occasional trips to customers. Loose atmosphere. Good if you are a developer or sales, bad if you are not. Programmers welcome as long as you have the same ideas as the CEO.

Cons

Poor management. No path for personal growth. Not being a developer limits how far you can go in the company.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Listen to customers and qualified employees, hire experienced people who did real work in the freight forwarding industry, not office managers, people who answered phones, or people from other industries that have no relation to freight forwarding or customers. Your way is not the always the right way. Accept faults and weakness to make things better instead of ignoring them and sweeping them under the rug.

The CargoWise Chicago office (which is located in Schaumburg) has an extremely friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Everyone gets along well and we are like an extended family here. I've made some great friends while working here including some good friends in our Australian and UK offices. Our benefits package is fantastic! I've compared with some friends and it really does beat most of their plans as far as medical, dental and 401K are concerned. We have fresh fruit delivered each week which makes for great breakfasts plus things like donuts and coffee cakes are brought in for us from time to time. We have Chicken and Cake day once a month, as well as Beer O Clock with Wings every Friday. This truly has been the best company I've worked for!

Cons

Most management is based in our Sydney office which can cause occasional communication issues. This varies depending on which team you are working with.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Work on improving communication between some of the upper management and the people reporting to them would be the best advice I could give. Also, bonuses would be an amazing way to increase morale at the office.

* Working on a huge product.* Code base and technical knowledge base is amazing.* Developers have great job stability and security - other departments are overhauled or reverted about once per year, but development is never touched.* The company likes to keep up with the latest technologies.* The CEO is extremely intelligent and has excellent business acumen.* Employee share option.* Good salary.* Perks such as food and beer.

Cons

* Poor customer focus. WTG thinks that they know best and every customer is a fool, therefore the service and support offered is poor and enrages and alienates many customers.

* Very steep learning curve and newbies are thrown in at the deep end. Sink or swim.

* No or little training given. Employees are expected to already know everything or to learn on their own.

* New ideas or product areas are developed as proofs-of-concept, but then are sometimes not rewritten having learnt the lessons. The result is the release of first-draft work, presented as a finished product.

* Poor delivery of services. The product can be slow, and accessing it as a Remote Application over the internet is very unreliable.

* Too much focus on Australia, despite most customers not being Australian.

* The CEO sticks his fingers in EVERYWHERE. It's really annoying to have your work, project, or decisions scrutinised by someone who should be making only CEO-level decisions.

* Very hard to get decisions made, because of the "flat" structure. Either (1) no-one makes a decision, or (2) the CEO has to make it, or (3) someone takes the bull by the horns and is then over-ruled by the CEO (bringing us back to #2).

* Poor career progression. You're either not moved or you're moved sideways.

* The company runs its business as its clients' test bed. Large technical changes are not properly sandboxed, we use WTG's operations as the sandbox and we run the business on alpha or untested code. Therefore there are a lot of technical problems in operating the business internally. On the other hand, these issues rarely make it to clients.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

* CEO: get off the shop floor and be a the excellent CEO that you can be; do not micro-manage; get your fingers out of your staff's pies and let them get on with the baking; make only CEO-level decisions and delegate to those you appointed for smaller decisions.

* Senior Managers: have some backbone and stop brown-nosing the CEO. He values your opinion, he really does, so stop simply giving him his own opinion back.

The founder and CEO is great at painting the positive picture and laying out where he wants the business to go. Yes, there is food available, yes, there is beer o'clock every Friday, so drink and eat - it's one of the few merry times in this workplace.There are plenty of staff from many differing backgrounds so there will be support from like minded people there to help you into the business and once you are there.If you are a shareholder, you will benefit as EVERY decision is related to the impending IPO.If you are a customer, you have a great product; learn how to get the most out of what you are paying for now, because in the absence of any real competition, your fees are going to keep going up.

Cons

The founder and CEO controls everything to the point your work will not proceed without his approval, which is ironic as he wants a scalable business and a flat hierarchy!If you have an opposing opinion, you risk being ostracised and reduce your chance at any career progression, so you have long term employees who have become "yes men" and seem to lack the confidence to challenge the thinking and create something they truly believe in.Statements are frequently made about "immediate changes" in the business without prior notification to those that the changes effect, and without the required structures to support those changes in place, resulting in a demoralising and debilitating work culture where you can be unsure about your role.Their is a strong focus on keeping the brand in a very positive light (formerly CargoWise -look it up) due to a proposed and imminent listing (IPO) of WiseTech on the Aust Stock Exchange.If you are considering a customer facing role, be VERY aware that customers are not happy with changes in the prices and license behaviour.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Practice what you preach! - allow your people to be outcome focussed, let them make mistakes without fear of reprisal and let them proposer, because without these principals in operation, your company Credo is a meaningless.

I've been at WiseTech Global for more than 10 years. It's the kind of company you only hear about in books and stories.The culture, freedom, energy, intelligence and innovation of virtually everyone in the company is immediately captivating when you enter the building.

I am given the freedom to decide what I believe adds value to the company (within reason). I have direct access to the CEO and Founder (as does everyone else) and have regular technical and innovative discussions with him, and with many other people.

The culture is amazing - fitness consultations, free breakfast, fruit etc - flexibility in terms of your hours - all of this just results in a company that you feel home at and don't want to leave.

Never will you find a company that actually LIVES what it says. Not just empty promises and words on a website. We truly live what we say. We enjoy it. We are passionate. 'Changing the world' is not just a statement - it is what we strive to do every day.

Cons

As you become more senior, the expectations on you obviously increase - however I think this is realistic and expected, rather than a 'Con'. There are times when frustration increases because of the very open plan office and constant communication - but again, this also results in a highly open culture - so again, not a 'Con'.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Keep doing what you are doing. Reward your best people, focus on innovation. Don't change!

WiseTech Global is an organization that has had a very high growth rate for several years and it looks likely to improve its growth rate in the future.

One thing that I particularly enjoy about working at Wise Tech is that it is a large company in terms of resources but has preserved some elements that make a small company dynamic. That is advantageous if you dislike corporate bureaucracy and like to get things done but it will be a challenge for the company to maintain this advantage as it grows further.

For those technical it offers the chance to gain allot of experience fast. This is particularly true for young software developers who are surrounded by extremely talented colleagues. For those in non-development roles the company offers an environment in which processes are constantly refined to work smarter. If you enjoy change and challenges then WiseTech Global will suit you.

Compensation:I believe that the compensation rates are competitive across job roles. In my experience it takes a while to prove your worth at Wise Tech Global so those expecting to work at the company for a short period of time to further their career may find their time spent here unsuccessful. I believe this is due to the nature and history of WiseTech Global which is that of shareholders who are also employees driving the business forward.

Cons

Some managers are not living by the Company Credo in their management of staff. A stronger emphasis on ensuring people are gaining experience, skills and are happy in their role is missing in a few teams.

There was a major bottleneck on getting things done in the past with a few key people being required to get projects moving however work on the process management has reduced this blockage greatly

Advice to ManagementAdvice

A greater emphasis on the responsibility of those who have persons reporting to them to manage according to the Company Credo

Continue to reward hard work with creative freedom but try to expand and empower a larger section of the staff

Clearer communication about the direction and value of projects so that even those not directly involved can understand the company's focus and vision.

The open culture is great - I'm not restricted from talking to others in the business about problems I see, even if those issues aren't directly related to my area. I learn a lot about our business this way and help to solve real issues.The perks are very good - breakfast, Friday drinks & food, fitness classes and educational assistance for postgrad studies (including leave for study). We're also encouraged to use postgrad studies to improve the business, generally working with the CEO.The most rewarding thing is the amount of work we get through at the level of quality we do it with. The volume of work and change is very challenging, but very rewarding.

Cons

There are pockets of negativity around the company about various changes (past and present) - we can do better at bringing people with us on changes in the business.Many people also complain about the CEO being a bottleneck. I rarely find this to be an issue.The company has invested in training courses to help managers overcome these kinds of problems and clarify their concerns, so action is already being taken here.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

'Management' can always continue to communicate more often and more openly - the monthly birthday gathering is improving a lot in that regard, so that's good to see. Keep it up!Seeing more public recognition of project successes (with customer stories) and people 'going beyond the call of duty' would be nice too.

Working at WiseTech has been challenging, especially not having an IT background. None the less it has been enjoyable, the people here are friendly and I have made some life long friends. The perks of cake day and celebrating events such as Melbourne cup, also create a unified and pleasant culture. Every day is different and you are faced with new challenges, although times may get frustrating, there is always someone around willing to help. No workplace is absolutely perfect right??

Cons

Higher management decision making process may take longer then expected. (Try and get in as early as you can)